I would share if I could, but I’m as in the dark as you are.
Is this any way to tell a love story?
I’m doing the best I can.
So is Husband.
Which is where the love story part comes in.
I needed to head out of town this past weekend.
It was a work thing, an exciting project I will be telling you more about as the pieces come together.
As work trips go, it wasn’t the biggest, longest or furthest ever.
Husband is holding down the fort with Pup at our home on the remote tidal marsh.
I’ve shared before my long-held travel belief that it’s always easier to be the one who leaves, rather than the one who stays.
Of course, I think of him all the time. I’ve also been focused and busy in an unfamiliar city.
Meanwhile, I could tell Husband has been missing me.
I was surprised to discover just how much.
It was during a phone call home that he dropped the love bomb on me, speaking in our old people marsh love language.
“I’ve been missing you so much that I’ve gone ahead and done a chore you’ve wanted me to do for a long time.”
We are talking big time flirting here.
“I’m not going to tell you what it is,” he continued, “because I want you to be excited to come home and see what it is.”
As if I think of Husband as a chore slacker.
He is not.
As if I need a completed chore to make me want to come home.
I do not.
It’s the thought and creativity that has me smiling, Dear Reader.
My life has certainly not always been this sweet.
To have someone to come home to.
To have someone to share a love language, even a goofy one that involves chores rather than, say, jewelry.
And now, just like you, I’m wondering, what has he done?
This remote life means we both have endless lists of what we can get done.
I stayed up late putting together his new stand-up desk the night before I left.
I’m the official putter-together in this relationship when something arrives in a box.
I’m better at it.
More patient.
More likely to actually read the directions and not chuck an Allen wrench across the room in frustration.
My best guess is Husband put up hooks so that mops, brooms and other tools can live neatly on a wall downstairs instead of strewn about the extra outdoor bathroom.
I know, so hot, right?
We will see.
I’ll report back. Meanwhile I wish you a week where you’re lucky enough to have someone do something kind for you.
Just as great would be that you have the opportunity to do something nice for someone else.
Kindness.
Chores.
Hooks.
It’s what makes the world go round.
Daryn Kagan is the author of the book “Hope Possible: A Network News Anchor’s Thoughts On Losing Her Job, Finding Love, A New Career, And My Dog, Always My Dog.” Email her at Daryn@darynkagan.com.
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